Legal Counsel

Job Description : GB Legal Counsel 9 Month Contract About us Diageo is the world’s leading premium drinks company with an outstanding collection of brands, such as Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Baileys, Captain Morgan, Tanqueray and Guinness! Our purpose – Celebrating life, every day, everywhere – has an important role in our company, for our people, our diversity, our brands, in how we perform and how we create shared value. Context The Legal Director GB and the three senior Counsels GB provide legal leadership and advice to key partners and their wider teams in GB. The Counsel GB reports to the Legal Director GB and will provide dedicated support to the Legal Director and the three senior Counsels GB. The Counsel GB will require a high level of professionalism and integrity, with good analytical and drafting skills, in particular in the area of commercial contracts, consumer and marketing laws and regulations, data privacy, and with some experience of competition law. They will need to have a commercial pragmatic approach; be able to explain legal concepts in a clear and practical manner; work autonomously and take initiative; have good interpersonal and influencing skills; be able to flex their style to suit context; be flexible in their approach to supporting different priorities across GB and be confident to support with presentations and training sessions to diverse audiences. Dimensions a) Financial: GB is the largest Market within the Europe Region and one of the largest Markets in Diageo overall. b) Market Environment/Complexity: The GB market has specific complexities in structure particularly in its route to market (where Diageo is largely reliant on UK brewers, its principal competitors, for its on-trade route to market) and the legal and regulatory constraints that apply to the distribution, sale and marketing of beverage alcohol combined with Diageo’s leading market positions in certain beer and spirits categories, make the provision of legal support challenging. The judicial systems in the UK are some of the most advanced and developed in the world. The external environment in the UK is complex and challenging and there continues to be the threat of further Government (at both a National and Devolved level) intervention and additional regulations and restrictions on the alcohol industry whether from additional duty increases, the introduction of minimum unit pricing, mandatory health warning labelling, advertising controls, and deposit return schemes. In addition, Competition Regulators and other Regulators in GB (such as the CMA, the SFO, the FSA and ASA) are some of the most active in the world. This challenging market environment requires dedicated legal resource to ensure the achievement of Diageo GB’s strategic objectives without compromising its business integrity or reputation. Role Dimensions The Counsel GB will support the achievement of the GB Market growth strategy and Diageo’s Performance Ambition through providing creative, pragmatic support, employing commercial foresight, and lateral thinking. The Counsel GB will provide support to the Legal Director and senior Counsels in the GB Market Legal Team. They will be expected to:

• Provide advice to the GB business; in particular draft and review commercial contracts such as on trade agreements, joint business plans and other customer contracts, marketing and sponsorship agreements;
• Advise on legal and reputational issues on consumer and customer marketing activities, innovation launches and sponsorship across GB; and support with consumer and regulatory complaints;
• Support delivery of the critical Compliance agenda including supporting the Legal Director and Market Counsels in providing relevant Legal Compliance training across all teams in GB, including regular refresher sessions;
• Carry out general legal research;
• Monitor and provide updates on changes to the regulatory landscape;
• Assist with development of team know-how and lead the processes for document and knowledge management, and records retention; and work closely with specialist global legal function teams (IP, Antitrust, Business Integrity, Brand Protection and Corporate Security) for issues and initiatives relevant to GB.

Top Accountabilities

• Enabling achievement of our Ambition: provide pro-active and fit for purpose legal advice and support to the GB business in a manner that will enable Diageo to beat the competition, drive achievement of our Ambition, attain the Must Dos, at all times in support of our key outcome of “Credibility & Trust: trusted by all collaborators for doing business the right way, from grain to glass”.
• Reputation Management: Support the creation and embedding of great governance, effective compliance and risk management across GB.
• Cost Management: Contribute to Productivity agenda. Provide support to the Legal Director and Market Counsels to ensure effective management of end-to-end legal spend, including ensuring that all external legal budget and spend data are recorded on Busylamp.
• People Growth: have a strong commitment to personal growth and capability building, aligned behind and accountable for business performance.

Qualifications and Experience

• Lawyer qualified in England and Wales, or another UK jurisdiction (or equivalent) and with relevant commercial legal practice experience gained in leading law firm or in-house.
• Knowledge and understanding of legal issues relevant to the commercial business in GB.
• Fluency in English is a requirement.

Diversity statement Celebrating our inclusive and diverse culture is core to Diageo’s purpose of “celebrating life every day everywhere”. This purpose is, in itself, inclusive in nature, as it values everybody irrespective of background, disability, religion, gender identity, sexuality or ethnicity. We know that for our business to thrive and for Diageo to realize its ambition, we depend on having diverse talent with a range of backgrounds, skills and capabilities in each of the 180 countries in which we operate and to reflect our broad consumer base. We view diversity as one of the key enablers that helps our business to grow and our values, purpose and standards set the conditions for us to respect the unique contribution each person brings. Flexibility is key to success in our business and many of our staff work flexibly in many different ways, including part-time, compressed hours, flexible location. Please talk to us about what flexibility means to you and don’t let anything stop you from applying. #LI-Hybrid Worker Type : Regular Primary Location: 1HQ Additional Locations : Job Posting Start Date : 2023-02-10-08:00